


The Thursday Morning Junk Mail

by Ena2705



Series: Criminal Minds Oneshots [2]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Badass Spencer, Gen, Judo, Protective Team, Secrets, fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 11:51:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21337789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ena2705/pseuds/Ena2705
Summary: Everybody is a victim of junk mail at least once in their life. Takeaway menus, blood drives, charity events, everyone has experienced some form of advertisement enter their letterbox.So when Spencer Reid picks up his mail one Thursday morning, he doesn’t think much of it, until he does.
Series: Criminal Minds Oneshots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1828786
Comments: 8
Kudos: 465





	The Thursday Morning Junk Mail

The pamphlet comes through his letterbox one Thursday morning. He picks it up with his left hand, his right hand cradling his morning coffee. “Judo” he reads aloud, wondering whether or not he should give it a go. Mulling over the idea, he concluded that it would come in handy, and it would definitely get him in shape. The next session was that night, and provided that a case wouldn’t arise, he’d decided to give it a shot.  
-  
“I wouldn’t be able to attend every session,” he tells the coach, “my job takes me around the country at last minutes notice.” The coach voices his understanding and hands him a gi. The white trousers barely scrape his ankles, but they don’t have any larger ones in stock. At the end of his first session, his body aches and he is sweaty, but he has fallen for the sport.  
-  
5 o’clock rolls around and he springs from his desk. “Woah, woah! Where are you rushing off to?” Morgan questions, and he gives a vague answer about having some place he needs to be. He knows his friend thinks he has a date, and he does: location, the dojo; the activity, uchi mata; his date, a sparring partner.  
-  
Weeks turn into months, and he has his first grading. He wakes up the next morning officially a red belt. It’s not much, but it’s a start, and for him, it feels great. “Someone’s in a good mood.” His friend teases as he walks into the bullpen. “You get lucky last night?” He grins and tells them he sure did. The team look on in shock and awe.  
-  
Paperwork sucks, he finds himself thinking one day. Deciding he needed a break from bureaucratic duty, he heads to the kitchen to make a well deserved coffee. “Did you see the bruise on his arm?” He overhears Emily. “And he had a blackeye last week.” Morgan adds. They’re talking about him, they’re worried about him. “We know he’s seeing somebody, do you think it’s abusive?” That was JJ, her motherly instincts assuming the worst. He knows he should tell them, put their minds at ease, but he enjoys his secret, it’s the one thing the team don’t tease him about.  
-  
He requested a day off. It was granted, despite Hotch not knowing why he needed the day off. He was packing his bag ready for the competition when he gets a text from Morgan: “hope your mom is okay, enjoy Vegas ;)”. He never mentioned his mom, but the team assumed that was the reason for his day off, they didn’t know about his social life. He won three out of four of his matches, winning silver. He hangs his first medal next to his doctorates, hoping to build a collection.  
-  
The team was off rotation for the next three weeks following a pretty gruelling case. Which meant all the training and re-assessments that they missed from back-to-back cases were going to occur in these three weeks. Today it was hand-to-hand combat. He woke up worried that his secret would be exposed, he went to work worried that his secret would be exposed. Morgan assumed his nerves were about fighting, he wasn’t totally wrong. He realised upon reflection that the mat had become his home, and as soon as he stepped on, of course all his worries would be forgotten about. He seriously stunned the team when he managed to bring down Morgan. Six times.  
-  
He was running late that morning, and knowing he had a fitness assessment that afternoon, he picked up his gym bag and ran out of the house. They were getting changed together because, just like the previous time, Morgan was assessing him. Crap. He’d picked up the wrong bag. Morgan noticed that he wasn’t getting changed and came to investigate why not. “What’s this?” He asked, picking up a blue belt. Well, Reid concluded, all good things must come to an end. “My competition belt. This one is my training belt.” He picked up a green belt. Morgan stared at him in shock. He made him promise not to tell.  
-  
It transpired that Morgan wasn’t very good at keeping secrets, and Garcia knew almost immediately after the fitness test. A quick google search brought up the names of local clubs, and a scan of their Facebook pages found Reid’s club. And the subsequent videos of him at his last competition. Meaning that every BAU agent’s computer was playing a gif of the ippon seio nage that won him gold last week on loop for three hours.  
-  
The unsub ran at him. Rossi yelled at him to move out the way but instinct took over, and before anyone had realised what had happened, the unsub was on his back, winded from the throw, and Reid was holding him down. A simple scarf hold is very effective when applied correctly. The unsub was cuffed and the team stared at him in shock. After all, it was one think knowing Reid did judo, it was a whole other thing seeing it in action. Emily was the first to break the stunned silence: “I’m not afraid to admit it, that was hot.”  
-  
It was his turn to host the team’s monthly dinner. Usually he would hide his medals and trophies, but he saw no point now they all knew. They hung proudly on his wall where they belonged, right next to the framed pamphlet that started it all.


End file.
